Thursday 4 December 2014

Angry

I am so angry about what this Conservative/Liberal government has done to our National Health Service.  They have cut funding so far that there is now not enough clinical staff to give even a very basic service.  
My Daughter in Law is eight months pregnant and is unfortunately in hospital with pneumonia and pleurisy.  The treatment she is getting is absolutely appalling and it is purely down to staff shortages.  She should be getting pain killers every 4 hours, she is lucky if she gets them every six hours, which means she is often left in severe pain.  The necessary antibiotics are given when the staff gave time, not when prescribed.  Nobody has even queried the fact that she has not eaten for days, in fact despite the fact that she is very dry and has a sore throat from constant coughing, she is being given toast or sandwiches.  So now we are taking her in food that she can eat.
She has been left naked on the bed for hours, until her mother arrived to cover her up, so distressing for anyone.  They send two young men to give her a bed bath. WTF is that all about?  No woman would like the indignity and humiliation of that.  She did send them away and waited for her mother to give her a wash.
If she needs help and pushes the buzzer, it goes unanswered as the staff just do not have the time. I do not blame the staff, they are doing their very best under difficult circumstances and many eventually collapse under the stress and go sick themselves.  If you don't have family or friends support, you are just left to get on with it as the staff don't have time for the 'extras' like feeding, washing etc.  And the lovely sympathy and understanding that you need when you are sick has just gone, there isn't time for a patient to be treated as an individual. 
Our health service has deteriorated so far that we come behind third world countries in several areas of healthcare. Yet it used to be the pride of Great Britain and the envy of the world.  I can only assume that this government wants it to get so bad that they can say that they have no alternative but to privatise it. Then heaven help anyone who is poor if they get sick, it doesn't even bear thinking about.